In the study area machine labour is used for dewatering, ploughing, threshing and winnowing. Dewatering operations in large padasekharams are more economical as per acre pumping expenses can be reduced by using high power electric pump sets. On an average the per acre pumping charges (
nerma) amounted to Rs after deducting the government subsidies. As elsewhere in Kuttanad all of the sample farmers had hired threshing machines that performs the twin functions of both threshing and winnowing. Throughout the study area the per acre hiring charges of threshing machines was Rs. It is found that during the last crop season 45 percent of the sample farmers used tractors or power tillers for ploughing their fields. An average farmer in the study area had spent Rs per acre as the hiring charges of tractors and power tillers. As 83 percent of the large farmers had adopted machine ploughing in this regard their average cost per acre is found to be relatively higher. The average per acre machine labour cost of the sample farmers in the study area is estimated as Rs. Machine labour costs of the different categories of farmers are shown in table 4.5.
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